Thursday, January 21, 2010

Great Awakenings make for a great book

Everything seems inadequate when measured against perfection. So even technology has become a symbol of failure because it is incapable of delivering perfection. Moreover, the notion of balancing the benefits against the costs or of balancing one set of risks against another, so common to the thinking of physicists, chemists, engineers, and economists, does little to quell the foreboding of those who seek assurance.

I am through the first two chapters, but I would already recommend reading the book. It is a fascinating history of political and religious movements in the United States.